May 18, 2007

Censoring Palestine on Daily Kos

As I couldn't care less about the Democrats, I don't read Daily Kos. They like to call themselves the "left-wing of the Democratic Party", but on the political spectrum that's still a pretty right-wing place to be, and I'm not interested.

Given that 500,000 other people per day do appear to be interested, and given that anyone can post on the site, it is an important place to raise topical issues that most Democrats could use some educating about, such as Palestine. Several pro-Palestine bloggers maintain diaries on the site in an effort to do just that.

But ironically enough, as the Palestinians marked the 59th anniversary of the Nakba - their forced expulsion from their homes and homeland - three pro-Palestine bloggers were expelled from Daily Kos. This occurred for no reason other than that the pro-Israel side complained consistently and loudly enough that some apparently weak-willed administrator gave in.

Sabbah, one of the recently-banned bloggers, provides some background on this development. Others on Daily Kos are trying to right the situation. Unfortunately, I don't see the banned bloggers being reinstated. As the dKosopedia states, "If you are banned as a user for any reason, the only court of appeal is Markos himself." And as Markos states, Daily Kos "is a Democratic blog with one goal in mind: electoral victory." As the Democrats' only concern about the Palestinians is making sure they remain as subjugated as possible, a blog dedicated to Democratic victory is likely not to look fondly on Palestinian rights or have any interest in the Palestinian narrative.

In short, it's a shameful situation. The banned bloggers should be immediately reinstated and the censorship at Daily Kos - for which it is gaining a reputation - should end. But really, it's the Democrats, the other brand of American Fascism™, so I wouldn't expect much. My hat is off to those who tried, and keep trying, to make a difference.

UPDATE: curmudgiana at My Left Wing shares just how far off the deep end the Kos administrators have gone. Truly, Daily Kos has now ideologically melded itself with Bush and the selective "war on terror." The purge and silencing of anything contradicting The Party line continues.

Comments

Do you mind if I rest here in comments for a minute? I've been weeding through Who-Hit-John comments at DailyKos. If I owned a gun I would seriously consider using it right now.

Haven't felt this way since Kerry lost.

You got it completely right. I don't want to rehash the whole thing. Can't say it any better than you have here.

I do read DailyKos because I do get a lot of my edumacation there. And I find it incredible that the same spirit of information sharing doesn't work on the subject of Palestine.

What really toasts my cookies is that the people with the absolute worst reasoning on the planet are the ones who made the successful case for banning to the management.

I understand the thin line between elections and the public's ability to do nuance, but what I don't understand is why -- with the world at war over the proposition that the United States should be able to stick Israel up anyone's ass at any time - it's so hard to understand why justice in Palestine relates to American poltics.

If anyone's still interested - two of the banned posters (umkahlil and Sabbah) remain banned. One - a long-time Jewish peace activist - was allowed to return, on the condition that her 'apology letter' be published. Unsurprisingly, she has not posted anything else there since (although she may in the future).

FWIW - in my view the problem is that there is a caucus of diarists there (who self-apply the "pro-Israel" label) who's main goal, really, is to just stifle or distort the debate. They fire off god knows how many emails to the admins complaining about every tiny little infraction made or not made by a "pro-Palestine" poster and, finally, the admins have got fed up. This statement from Hunter, one of the admins, says it all:

"Second, I believe this demonstrates why every single new pro-Palestinian poster in these threads is going to be presumed guilty until proven innocent, from here on in. I ain't gonna screw around trying to invent elaborate ways of detecting this clown, I'm just going to ban anyone that sounds vaguely like him. I don't have the kind of time in my day necessary to worry about any more "fair" solution, and no inclination. If that results in his side of the discussion being completely wiped from the site except for already well-established posters, then frankly I'm having a hard time getting all teary-eyed about that." [my emphasis]

I got banned a year ago for complaining about the censorship and using censorship of 9/11 conspiracy theories as an example. I haven't been back to Daily Kos since, and, frankly, I don't miss it. The atmosphere there was oppressive. The quote by Daily Kos founder Markos above pretty much sums it up: Daily Kos "is a Democratic blog with one goal in mind: electoral victory." Conformity is highly praised, and questioning and free thought are not. Not a very appealing environment, if you ask me.